Fredric Wertham was a pioneer in 20th century psychiatric medicine. He was involved in examining convicted killers like Albert Fish and Robert Irwin, was instrumental in ending segregation in America’s schools, and played a key role in the censorship of comics, particularly crime and horror comics, leading to the creation of the Comics Code Authority (boo!).
Harold Schechter and Eric Powell reunite to follow up their brilliant book on the strange case of Ed Gein with a book on… a disagreeable psychiatrist? It’s an odd choice although Dr Werthless turns out to be a pretty decent book - mainly as it doesn’t totally abandon the true crime angle.
The first half is definitely the best. This is focused almost entirely on true crime cases, like serial killers Jesse Pomeroy, Albert Fish and Robert Irwin. I’d have liked it if the whole book was only on killers as I think this is what the creative team do so well and is what made their first collab stand out for me.
The second half is much less compulsive reading. While the perspective of a comics fan/creator on Wertham would likely be quite negative for what he did to the medium, Schechter/Powell provide a more rounded view on the man. Though very difficult to get along with on a professional level due to his unpleasant personality, he was clearly a kind person who treated even repugnant murderers like Fish and Irwin with dignity and politeness.
He also had a progressive mindset for the time. He worked hard to end segregation in America’s schools with his testimony playing a big part in bringing this about. He also set up community clinics to allow poor minorities to access mental health services for a quarter a session. He also stood up for Ethel Rosenberg, despite this being the height of the Red Scare and he might’ve even faced dire consequences by being labelled a commie himself.
Then, for whatever reason, he became fixated on comics as the reason for why da yoof of America was “acting out” and began his lifelong crusade against comic books. Unfortunately, his actions did gain traction leading to a decades-long censoring of the medium via the formation of the thankfully long-defunct Comics Code Authority. Wally Wood, an artist on MAD magazine, gave Wertham the nickname that is the title of this book: “Dr Werthless”.
Obviously this idea of “(blank) is popular with kids and must be what’s making them do bad things” is an endless, ongoing obsession with modern society. It’s why the book opens with the case of Jesse Pomeroy, the 13 year old who was eventually convicted of killing 2 kids in the 1870s (decades before comic books were invented) but was suspected of killing more than 9, with his actions being attributed to his fondness for trashy dime novels about cowboys and injuns.
Dime novels, comics, TV shows, the “Satanic Panic” of the 80s, rock music, video games, and now social media - sure, maybe some kids are influenced to do bad things because monkey see monkey do, but most aren’t. It’s just weirdly naive, almost absurd, that an intelligent man like Wertham would have such a simplistic view of the unfathomable complexity of the human mind and think that with his brand of enlightened psychiatry he could rid humanity of criminal violence.
That elementary perspective then is rather tedious to keep reading about for nearly half the book. And, while I appreciate Schechter/Powell showing the different facets of Wertham’s character, reading pages and pages of scenes set in court about segregation and morality becomes quite wearying and slow going, particularly in comparison to the first half of the book. This is a text-heavy comic, especially the second half, with huge blocks of text on nearly every page and all of it, while informative, very dry to read.
Powell’s art is excellent. I’ve been a fan of his for years and his style is very skillful and expressive. It’s mostly pencils and the whole book is in black and white, to befit the time period. He especially nailed the disturbing look of Albert Fish and he showed range with imitating art styles from the 40s and 50s in certain sequences.
I would’ve preferred instead if Schechter/Powell did away with Wertham entirely and produced another true crime comic because the true crime parts of this book were riveting while the Wertham parts were the polar opposite. As it is, for those interested in comics history, here’s half a book on one of the chief architects of censorship in 20th century comics, although, if you were somehow expecting it, don’t expect compelling reading. But if you’re after more of the morbidly fascinating stuff Schechter/Powell gave us in Ed Gein, the first half of the book is worth checking out.
Not entirely worthless then - satisfying and unsatisfying in equal measure, Dr Werthless is a middling follow-up to Schechter/Powell’s Ed Gein book.
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